UHPC HT and Refractory - The difference

UHPC HT Products

UHPC, Ultra High Performance Concrete, is a combination of a cement, micro particles and wear resistant (very hard) particles. Due to the 

micro particles it is possible to create a perfect physical packing ensuring improved chemical reactions. These chemical reactions secures the formation of minerals with superior properties at room temperature. Hence around 60% of the full strength will be obtained after 48 hours. Final strength of a UHPC is 100-250 MPa / 14500-36250 psi.

Water added to UHPC to secure a proper 

rheology is limited, and shortly after setting there will be no more free water in the system, as all water will be bond in the structure of the chemical reactions.

When heating UHPC HT the risk of cracking due to evaporation of water is limited. However too fast heating of a virgin installation could lead to this. Hence it is recommended to firstly heat up the installation at a rate of 50°C/hr. The heating does not contribute to the strength of the system however it will increase the rate of strength building.

Refractories

Unshaped refractories typically contains an alumina cement as the bonding material and other metallic minerals depending on the 

temperature and environment it is installed. Water is mixed in to create the right rheology for installation. As such this product at ambient 

temperature can be viewed as an ordinary mortar. As such the product is relative porous and strength at ambient temperature is not likely 

to exceed 45 MPa. This system will also reach around 60% of final strength after 48 hours of hydration.

This system will contain free water after installation, hence there is a risk of cracking when heated. Hence it is necessary to heat it at specific heating rate in order to avoid such cracks. In order for refractories to work they need to be heated so that the metallic minerals is calcinated 

and sintered into the wanted minerals with the needed properties.

Comparison

The strength and density of UHPC HT is a lot higher than that of refractories. Hence these products will be better at withstanding inner pressure from internal water evaporation, reducing the risk of cracks and ultimate process destruction of the product.

UHPC HT does not need heat to form the minerals needed in the mix in order to obtain the properties. 

Heat will however increase the rate of property formation.

 

In the future more people will live one artificial islands made by UHPC concrete constructions

In the future, more and more people will be forced to live on the water in coastal and flat islands.

Most of the world's major sites can be found on the coasts of our continents. the space for enlarging the site is not infinite. The first city planners are working on designs for how cities can spread out on the water. In other parts of the world, coastal sites are so deep in relation to the ocean that if the water rises just a few centimetres, the sites are in danger. Some islands are so deep that they also have extreme problems with today's ocean levels.

The previous wooden constructions of the coastal and river delta inhabitants will no longer be sufficient.
Rising sea levels and flooding are the result of climate change.

New construction designs by architects and new construction material can help coastal residents. Likewise, the existing wooden constructions can be made more stable where possible.

WPE DK HPC and UHPC binder systems are able to use local raw materials as aggregates or reinforcement such as bamboo, coconut fibre, jute fibre, shell casing, desert sand, lawa, granite etc. Everything built from HPC and UHPC concrete with such aggregates is sustainable and can be easily reused.

WPE DK HPC and UHPC concrete is ideal as a construction material for repairs and new constructions. HPC and UHPC concrete can extremely increase the stability and service life of wooden structures both above and underwater and create a corrosion protection for steel construction. 

Artificial islands on stilts on the coast or floating
islands on the high seas can offer solutions of any size. The islands can consist entirely of UHPC concrete. UHPC concrete is absolutely seawater resistant and has enormous strength. Entire cities could emerge on such platforms. The first architectural drafts by large international architectural offices have been around for a long time. Disused oil production platforms could also be upgraded and serve as starting points for such large artificial platforms.

For more than 30 years, HPC and UHPC concrete has been used in the international offshore industry as a material for new constructions or repairs. A lifetime of several hundred years is assumed for WPE DK UHPC new
designs.

Artificial, near-natural reefs and bank protections with HPC and UHPC are also planned, whereby the bank protections adapt to nature in their design and are not ugly concrete blocks. HPC and UHPC materials are far superior to steel in many areas in the offshore industry. There are already the first plans for underwater structures made of WPE DK UHPC special qualities in the deep sea down to 3000 m /9800 ft. 

 

 

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: info@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

 

UHPC Concrete tower construction up to 300 meter

Industrial chimneys and lighthouses have always

been bricked up, and so well that they are still

fully functional to this day and would be a while

if they weren't torn down. Today you would not

be able to pay for such a construction method

and you would no longer have the time to assemble

it.

Large or tall towers such as TV towers, radio masts,

offshore / onshore wind turbines and similar

structures are made of steel or reinforcing concrete.

High-quality UHPC materials can take on

compressive strengths of more than 240 MPa /

34.800 psi and thus corresponding bending tensile

strengths without reinforcement.

With appropriate reinforcement, these values ​​can

be multiplied several times. Today, slim, high-

strength tower constructions are possible that

cannot be achieved with standard concrete. The

main tube construction of radio masts can also

be made entirely of UHPC today.

Towers for onshore and offshore wind turbines

are already made from UHPC prefabricated parts

or cast on site.

UHPC has many technical advantages over steel

or reinforced concrete structures. UHPC towers

are absolutely corrosion-resistant, quickly

installed and maintenance-free.

 

 

Special technical sales training sessions for HPC and UHPC markets and related products

In the last quarter of this year, we are almost fully booked with our technical sales training sessions (by no means to be confused with a presentation). 

 

These very specific training sessions focus entirely on the local market of our participants and the related HPC and UHPC materials. For this reason, only one country is admitted per training session. There are still training sessions booked this year by companies from Poland, Switzerland, Italy and South Korea. We do not charge our clients for the training. Therefore, only travel costs are incurred for our customers.

The joint preparation for the training usually takes about  4 weeks.
 

In the coming year, our new mobile training unit for practical processing training will start its service and can be booked by our customers worldwide. Here, all types of mixing and processing with all HPC and UHPC can be carried out practically.

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: info@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

UHPC Concrete for windturbine floating systems

UHPC Ultra High Performance concrete has over twenty years of experience in the offshore industry. It is used as a construction material and as a corrosion protection material.
For floating windturbine constructions, UHPC offers
many advantages over steel constructions and
concrete constructions.

UHPC is absolutely seawater resistant and does not corrode. Most of the extremely expensive and maintenance-intensive corrosion protection systems are no longer necessary.
UHPC achieves extremely high strength values    (max.240 MPa / 34800 psi) even without steel, fiber or ceramic reinforcement. 

UHPC can be used as a cast material, spray material and as a mortar material.
UHPC reaches approx. 70% of its maximum nomina strength after 48 hours.
UHPC is self-compacting in casting. During casting,
UHPC develops significantly less heat than standard concrete. Problems like corrosion in weld seams do  not exist with UHPC.

A corrosion protection coating of the UHPC construction is not necessary.  

Due to the high strength values, the entire construction can be optimized for the required wall thickness and thus weight. There is also the option of using low weight UHPC. These UHPC are half the density of our standard construction UHPC. There is also a UHPC that swims with a density below 1. UHPC concrete can be manufactured and mixed locally on site. Costly transports can be omitted. For assembly stations in Arab, African and Indian countries, we could offer a binder that can be manufactured and mixed with desert sand. This would eliminate the need for additional, costly transports.

 

 

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: info@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

UHPC Liquid-tight constructions

Liquid-tight constructions are becoming increasingly important for the economy and insurance companies worldwide. 

In the past, industries such as refineries, seawater desalination plants, sewage treatment plants,
hydroelectric power plants, offshore industries, etc. were particularly interested. There is a huge range of sealing systems for concrete structures. Most systems are expensive, complex to install and do not have the same life expectancy as you would expect from the structure. So the sealants have to be applied several times, which in turn leads to problems and enormous
costs. For a few years now, there has been an increasing demand for coastal protection and especially flood protection structures that have to withstand the constant attack of moving seawater caused by high and low tides, but also by enormous wave movements.

Another growing problem is the rapid change in the climate and the ever-increasing amounts of rainfall that lead to inland flooding and, among other things, also flood residential buildings worldwide, which then have to be repaired in a time-consuming and costly manner. Concrete sealants are of limited or no help here.

One solution is concrete structures made of HPC or UHPC concrete. Here, waterproofing can already be achieved with a wall thickness of 10 - 15 mm. This concrete layer can be subsequently applied to any substrate in industry as well as in residential buildings. This is also possible in countries with predominantly natural material constructions.  
If the ground floor is completely built of HPC or UHPC or provided with a protective layer, no flood water, which is usually also dirty water, can penetrate into the building structure. 

After the floodwater has disappeared, the walls and floor can be cleaned with locally available cleaning machines such as high-pressure water jets, after which this area is immediately habitable again.

In industry, a UHPC layer can completely prevent or hold back breakthroughs for a very long time in the event of liquid attack from the outside, i.e. from floodwater masses, or from the inside in the event of ruptures or leaks in liquid tanks.

Sewage treatment plants can be constructed directly from HPC or UHPC, or they can be retrofitted after prior inspection of the building structure. The same applies to biotank systems for the production of biogas.

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: info@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

UHPC OilWell Binder for local production

Offshore and onshore oil drilling projects and active oil production platforms number in the thousands worldwide. OilWell cement binder is required for all these objects and in large quantities. Until now, these extreme quantities were shipped worldwide to the places of need, transported by truck or by a combination of both, regardless of which transport route was chosen, it was time-consuming and expensive.
Today and in the future, these transport routes will become more complicated, unreliable and much more expensive.

We would like to offer an alternative to the standards used so far. We have been developing and producing UHPC binder systems for more than 25 years. Among other things, we also produce UHPC binders for the offshore industry.

Our alternative to the current transport routes is the production of UHPC OilWell binder on site with local raw materials. After testing the local raw materials, it is possible to quickly determine which OilWell qualities can be produced locally and replace standard OilWell binder from overseas.
For the production, a mobile production unit consisting of three to four containers is used, depending on the desired production quantity, which can load the produced binder into BigBags or silos.

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: ber@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

 

Local UHPC offshore binder production through our new UHPC binder production modules.

 

We have been supplying UHPC grouting material to the offshore industry worldwide for many years. Our UHPC offshore programme consists of UHPC binder systems for wind turbines, offshore foundations, offshore repair material for oil and gas platforms, offshore corrosion protection and UHPC Oilwell cements.
With the new mobile HPC and UHPC binder production plants, we are able to produce HPC and UHPC binders locally with local raw materials worldwide after prior suitability testing. The mobile plants are modular in design and can be easily expanded.

 

 

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: info@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

 

 

UHPC Floating platforms

The future will take place more and more on the water of the oceans, whether on the coast or in the open sea. UHPC Ultra high Performance Concrete will play a crucial role in this. The two main construction materials in the offshore sector so far are steel and concrete. However, both have significant disadvantages compared to UHPC.
On the one hand, there is resistance to salt water. Steel is very difficult to protect against corrosion and even then the construction still has to be serviced regularly and very time-consuming and expensive. Floating structures should have a lifespan of at least 100+ years in the future.
With normal concrete structures the problems are similar, if not more serious. Once extremely corrosive seawater has penetrated the steel reinforcement unnoticed, the repair effort is enormous. In addition, for this very reason, the construction must be extremely thick-walled. An anti-corrosion coating makes the entire construction additionally expensive and here too the entire construction must be checked regularly in short periods of time.
Special UHPC concretes have extremely high strength values ​​compared to normal concretes, they are waterproof after a wall thickness of a few millimeters and are absolutely salt water resistant. Some of our UHPC binders are also extremely temperature-resistant (up to max. 1200°C) and they are very good wear-resistant (resistant to wear and tear caused by moving ice floes). Due to the high strength values, structural elements can be optimized or minimized in terms of size and weight.
UHPC concrete will be the much cheaper material for the required service life.

As developers and producers of high-quality UHPC binder materials, we want to focus on three future projects:

1st project
Floating work platforms for energy generation and storage.
All the major offshore wind farm operators worldwide are currently planning not only to generate energy with wind turbines, but also to use this energy to produce hydrogen on site in the wind farm. Solar systems on the platforms should contribute to additional energy generation. The platforms can be manufactured in several standard segments and connected to form a network at sea. These platforms can be made from very lightweight UHPC. This UHPC material can be self-floating.

2nd project
Floating living and working platforms, artificial islands for the coastal area and for the open sea. Platforms
for residential buildings, hotels, schools, hospitals, office buildings and production facilities.
Please see the corresponding article below.

3rd project
Offshore missile launch sites
There are various ideas for implementing this. In Germany, launch sites on ships for small and medium-sized rocket systems for satellite transport are being considered and are already being planned. Elon Musk is planning rocket launch sites for converted former oil production platforms. In all of these plans, UHPC could contribute to intelligent, lasting solutions. Ships were built from UHPC more than 20 years ago and
offshore platforms with UHPC were significantly improved structurally and statically.
Please see the corresponding article below.

 

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: ber@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

Living and working on water and under water with UHPC as construction material

Since than 30 years, UHPC Ultra High
Performance Concrete has been used
worldwide in the offshore sector as
a foundation, repair and construction material.
In offshore wind power technology, UHPC
is used as a floating foundation construction.

Deep sea constructions with UHPC have
also been successfully tested down to a
depth of 3500 m / 11480ft. Together with a  
German university, we tested dome 
constructions with different concrete 
qualities and UHPC. Only UHPC was able 
to withstand the enormous water pressure.

Likewise, energy storage systems for

offshore wind turbines are currently being
developed, which consist of hollow concrete
balls measuring over 30 m in diameter,
which are sunk to a depth of 300 m. These
energy storage systems would also be ideal
for supplying energy to floating cities.

Living and working on water and under water
can be realized sustainably and without an
problems with UHPC Ultra High Performance
Concrete materials.

The first serious projects are already planned
and are about to be realized. International
architect groups are already working on
self-sufficient cities above and under water.
UHPC is an important building construction
material for the designs, which are designed for
extreme longevity with very little to no
maintenance.

The advantages are

• Absolute seawater resistance
• Extreme corrosion resistance
• Extreme compressive strength
• Extreme tensile strengths
• Almost any design geometry can be made
• Material combinations of all kinds are easily possible
• Installation methode same as standard concrete

UHPC - Concrete - Steel Dimensional comparison

Measurements on the standard concrete structure are in
centimeters, meters, inches, feet and yards. 

Measurements in steel construction are made in
millimeters, inches, feet and yards.

Measurements in mechanical engineering are
made in millimeters, tenths and hundredths of
a millimeter.

Today UHPC construction and mechanical elements can be manufacture and polished so precisely that they can be measured with a tolerance of tenths or sometimes hundreds of a millimeter.

In the near future we will leave standard concrete behind and
make steel competition in a many industrial application
areas for machinery and construction parts. 

As a construction material, UHPC has an enormous number of advantages when compared to standard steel grades and their often complex processing. UHPC as we understand and produce it can be used as a construction material, sealing material and adhesive of high quality.

.

Combination of UHPC and Nanotubes

We are being asked more and more often by
customers in Asia about the use of Nanotubes
in our UHPC products.
It is always the same question, can nanotubes
improve the technical properties of our UHPC
products? 

Our answer to that is:

Yes, Nanotubes with a certain geometry and size
can do that.  

BUT that's like trying to install an additional
carburetor / turbo system in a Bugatti Viron to
get 10% more engine power, with a standard
engine power of over 1000 hp. The Bugatti Viron
is a perfect car system, making it better with a
possible slight increase in performance only rarely
makes sense.

In other words:
A really good UHPC is a perfect, extremely
powerful system, which in today's industry
hardly ever reaches its performance limit.
The UHPC we make is made by creating a
perfect physical packing of specific particles
in order to achieve perfect chemical reactions.

We have been developing and testing the use
of Nanotubes in our UHPC products for more
than two years.
So far, these UHPC special products have only
been used in very special areas of application
that required very special technical solutions
in the areas of mechanics, electrical engineering
and thermal conductivity.
We have been developing and producing UHPC
systems for more than 25 years. We develop
UHPC products for the future. The processing
of Nanotubes and desert sand with our UHPC
products is part of our ideas for the future.

Sustainability and the use of natural materials
such as bamboo or natural fibers is another
development we are taking. The use of sustainable

raw materials in combination with our UHPC
materials, some of which will also be made from
sustainable raw materials in the future, is one of
our goals.

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: info@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

An unusual adhesion and tensile test with UHPC Cast

 An unusual adhesion and tensile test with UHPC Cast

A customer asked us to demonstrate the exceptional adhesion and tensile strength of our UHPC Cast binder. Our test idea was also unusual. For this test in our workshop we needed a Monster can, two simple rusty flat irons, some UHPC Cast binder, a few steel fibres and bigbags with different fillings.
The Monster can was cut at the top and bottom and the flat irons were put in without touching each other in the can, then the UHPC cast binder material was filled in. We left the material to harden for 24 hours.

After 24 hours a flat iron should be attached to a crane hook and at the other flat iron weights of 1to, 2to and 3 to were attached. The respective weight should hang in the crane hook for at least 2 days without releasing one of the flat iron from the UHPC.

All three weights hung a week in the crane hook without any problems.

We also did a similar experiment with polished metals. The loads were increased in these experiments to 10 to without causing damage.

UHPC Wear- and corrosion protection for all pipe dimensions

UHPC linings of all kinds of pipes inside and
out was one of our first major projects more
than 25 years ago. The pipes should be
permanently protected against wear and
corrosion with UHPC under the toughest
conditions. First of all, pipes for pneumatic
material delivery lines in the cement industry
were lined. After that, pneumatic and hydraulic
pipelines for the coal-fired power plant industry
and the steel industry were lined. Later came
the offshore industry and the wastewater
industry. We lined pipes of any diameter from
40mm / 1,57inch to 8000mm / 315inch. Here,
the geometry played no major role, so
whether Y-piece, pipe bend, reducer, etc.

The huge advantage of UHPC over all liners at
that time was the seamless lining, the flexibility
in layer thicknesses, the variations in material
quality and the very high wear and corrosion
resistance for a very long service life. Even
today, pipes are in use that were lined 25 years
ago with UHPC.
Today, new pipe systems are lined with UHPC
or existing pipe systems are repaired with UHPC
material. It makes only a very small difference
whether they are concrete or steel pipes.

We use UHPC mortar, UHPC castable and
UHPC shotcrete as lining material. UHPC
Rapid material grades are used for extremely
fast repairs.

In the offshore industry, UHPC is used both
as the inner and outer lining of pipelines.
UHPC can also be used underwater. A 15mm
or 0,6inch thick UHPC coating is waterproof
and absolutely corrosion resistant. A UHPC-
lined offshore structure no longer requires
regular corrosion protection coatings. UHPC
is used today as a material for offshore
constructions and offshore foundations
worldwide.

For some years, we use high temperature resistant
UHPC material in the steel industry. Hot gas
temperatures up to more than 1000°C / 1832°F
are no problem here. We also coat hot gas pipe
system with a combination of UHPC and high
performance insulation. This makes it possible
to dispense with stainless steel as a construction
material, which in turn reduces costs enormously.


Wastewater pipelines, storm water drains, storm
water storage systems road drainage systems,
sewage systems and culverts whether made of
steel or concrete, can be easily repaired with
UHPC. It is not necessary to clean the
construction of rust before you start with the
lining. With UHPC Shotcrete, larger pipelines
can be quickly and permanently repaired. Due
to the extremely low rebound of less than 3%,
special cleaning work in the pipeline is not
necessary.

Smaller repairs can be done quickly with UHPC
mortar or UHPC Cast. As UHPC materials
exceed the compressive strength of all standard
concretes by more than once, steel and concrete
pipelines are more resilient after a complete repair.

Advantage of UHPC 
Absolutely waterproof
Absolutely moisture resistant
Extremely corrosion resistant
Very high life expectancy
Very good resistance to a variety of chemicals
Very high strength


www.hhbc-consulting.de
info@hhbc-consulting.de 



 

An unusual bond and impact test with UHPC mortar

An unusual bond and impact test with UHPC mortar

This test was carried out by us more than 15 years ago. The aim was to test the adhesion of UHPC mortar in a pipe section. For this purpose, a pipe section was provided with only a few small anchors.

Only half the circumference of the pipe section was lined with UHPC mortar in a layer thickness of 25 mm / 1 inch. The half-circumference lining was chosen to increase the load in the event of an impact.

As you can clearly see in this video, the adhesive force of UHPC mortar is so great that it took several impacts and a deformation of the steel structure to release the UHPC mortar lining from the steel structure.

 

 

Short time repair story of a oil rig with UHPC

An oil company had very big problems with an old pumping station in the Bay of Bengal. Due to
massive corrosion on some columns, the entire statics of the conveyor station was endangered. It was expected that they have to give up the station in a short term.

The only technically feasible solution that offered itself at short notice was the filling of the columns with UHPC concrete. A demand of approx. 600 tons of UHPC material was determined by the oil company. Within a week, the 600 tons could be produced.

The procurement of raw materials was the time factor here. The actual production did not take more than 1.5 days.
There was no time to ship the UHPC material to the Bay of Bengal. The oil company rented Anotonow AN 124 aircraft for direct transport.
On site, a ship was chartered for the material and the mixing systems. On the ship, the UHPC material was mixed by specialists and pumped into the columns.

What were the reasons why the oil company chose UHPC?

1. The fast availability
2. The fast strength development
3. The absolute sea water / corrosion resistance
4. The fast processing, even on the high seas
5. A long-term technical solution